Category Archives: CES2017

The 3D printers of CES

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CES is over, and now we can take a step back, distance ourselves from the trade show booths, and figure out where 3D printing will be going over the next year.

The Hype Cycle is a great way to explain trends in fads and technological advances. VR and autonomous cars are very early on the Hype Cycle right now. Smartphones are on the plateau of productivity. 3D printing is head-down in the trough of disillusionment.

For this year’s CES, 3D printing is not even a product category. In fact, the official documentation I found at Prusa’s booth listed their company …read more

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CES2017: Which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?

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CES 2017 is finally over, but one question has yet to be answered: which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?

Astonishing new devices

CES is the Mecca for new, interesting, and innovative hardware. Every year, one device amazes the crowds with incredible engineering. This year it was something phenomenal: a laptop with multiple displays. The Thinkpad W701ds is a work of art. It’s a mobile workstation with two independent displays. Oh, yeah, the Razer thing.

Razer, manufacturer of computer peripherals that break far too easily, introduced a concept 3-screen laptop. Is it very, very cool? Yes. Is it …read more

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CES2017: Which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?

Posted on by

CES 2017 is finally over, but one question has yet to be answered: which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?

Astonishing new devices

CES is the Mecca for new, interesting, and innovative hardware. Every year, one device amazes the crowds with incredible engineering. This year it was something phenomenal: a laptop with multiple displays. The Thinkpad W701ds is a work of art. It’s a mobile workstation with two independent displays. Oh, yeah, the Razer thing.

Razer, manufacturer of computer peripherals that break far too easily, introduced a concept 3-screen laptop. Is it very, very cool? Yes. Is it …read more

Continue reading CES2017: Which Internet of Thing is Best Internet of Thing?→

CES2017: Complete Register Documentation For The C.H.I.P.

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Last October, Next Thing Co., makers of the popular C.H.I.P. platform unleashed the C.H.I.P. Pro, a very capable Linux system on a tiny board. The goal of the C.H.I.P. Pro is to be the brains of a project or product, similar to the Gumstix boards from an ancient era long before the Raspberry Pi.

Introduced alongside the C.H.I.P. Pro was a fantastic little device. The GR8 module is a complete Linux system on a chip, with an ARM Cortex-A8 processor and 256 MB of RAM, all on a relatively small BGA chip. This is a drop-in part that gives any …read more

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CES2017: Lulzbot Has the Best Names for Stuff

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Lulzbot is the poster child of the RepRap project. Everything they do is big-O Open. At CES, Lulzbot launched the MOARstruder, a tool head with a 1.2mm nozzle diameter. That pushes a lot of plastic out, allowing for faster print times. This is the same nozzle diameter as the largest E3D Volcano, and from the big prints sitting around the booth, the results are similar: you get faster prints at larger layer heights, and the layer lines become a design feature.

Also announced by Lulzbot this week is the release of Cura 2 (Lulzbot edition), a partnership with the Blender  …read more

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CES2017: Really Fast 3D Printing for Large Builds

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About a year ago, Autodesk showed off one of the most innovative filament printers in recent memory. Project Escher is your basic Cartesian filament printer, but with a twist: it has five heads. These print heads work together to build large objects very quickly.

Autodesk open sourced the design of the Escher, and now it’s made it into commercial production thanks to Titan Robotics. The Cronus, which uses the same software as Project Escher, is big! Each of these gantries is driven by closed-loop servo motors and fancy ball screws, producing a total build volume of 77″x30″x20″. This open air …read more

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CES2017: Dissolvable Support Material

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Over the last year, it seems the next big thing in 3D printing is dual and multi-extrusion. This gets you multi-colored objects, but if you have the right filament, it also allows you to print objects that would otherwise be impossible to print. This week, Airwolf 3D announced their HydroFill water soluble support material. They had a few sample prints and a fish tank, and yes this stuff does dissolve in water quickly.

There were a few problems with dissolvable support material in the past. PVA is water soluble, but it doesn’t print well. HIPS can be dissolved in limonene, …read more

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CES2017: Monoprice Unveils Expanded Line of 3D Printers

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At CES last year, Monoprice introduced a $200 3D printer. Initial expectations of this printer were middling. My curiosity got the best of me, and last summer I picked up one of these printers for a review. The Monoprice MP Select Mini is actually phenomenal, and not just ‘phenomenal for the price’. This machine showed the world how good one of the cheapest printers can be. The future is looking awesome.

You might think Monoprice wouldn’t be able to top the success of this great little machine. You would be wrong. This week, Monoprice announced a bevy of new and …read more

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CES2017: Really, Really Big SLA Printing

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Last year at CES, UniZ introduced the Slash, a desktop resin printer. It’s fast, it’s capable, and it’s shipping now, but there was something else in the UniZ booth that had a much bigger wow factor.

The UniZ zSLTV is a gigantic box, a little more than one meter wide, and a little less than one meter tall and deep. Open the lid, and you see a gigantic resin printer turned on its side. The idea here is to fill a gigantic tank with resin, (the build volume is 521 x 293 x 600 mm) and use it as a …read more

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CES2017: Really, Really Big SLA Printing

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Last year at CES, UniZ introduced the Slash, a desktop resin printer. It’s fast, it’s capable, and it’s shipping now, but there was something else in the UniZ booth that had a much bigger wow factor.

The UniZ zSLTV is a gigantic box, a little more than one meter wide, and a little less than one meter tall and deep. Open the lid, and you see a gigantic resin printer turned on its side. The idea here is to fill a gigantic tank with resin, (the build volume is 521 x 293 x 600 mm) and use it as a …read more

Continue reading CES2017: Really, Really Big SLA Printing→